Kindle Fire 2 vs Nexus 7: Who Will Win?

The Kindle Fire made a splash in the tablet market when it was first released. It was the first legitimate contender in the sub-$200 range, opening up tablet computing for consumers with tighter budgets. However, Google clearly saw an opportunity in that market as well, which is why they recently released the Nexus 7.

The Kindle Fire 2 is expected to be announced later this month, or at the beginning of August. In that announcement, Amazon will likely have one target in mind: the Nexus 7.

InformationWeek.com published a list of features that the Kindle Fire 2 could use to top the Nexus 7. Here are a few highlights from that article:

Higher resolution display: The Kindle Fire had an admirable 1024×600 resolution. However, the Nexus 7 features a stunning 1280×800 resolution, and the Kindle Fire 2 is going to have to match (or better, exceed) that if it wants to have a chance of competing with the Nexus 7.

Camera: This one’s obvious. The Nexus 7 has a front-facing camera, the Kindle Fire does not. Amazon needs to include a decently-powered front facing camera on their next device if they want it to succeed.

More storage space: The Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7 have one thing in common: 8GB of internal storage space. Would it really be that difficult to bump that space up to 16GB in the Kindle Fire 2? If Amazon could do that, the company could increase sales at its online store while protecting their market from Google.

Fast performance: Even lower end tablets now feature powerful dual-core processors. However, the Nexus 7 blew those lower end tablets out of the water with its quad-core processing power through the Nvidia Tegra 3. Let’s hope the Kindle Fire 2 has a quad-core processor as well.

Better graphics and gaming: The Nexus 7 features powerful game-playing capabilities. While Amazon’s store has plenty of games, the gaming capabilities of the Kindle Fire lag behind that of the Nexus 7.

The article also mentions that the Kindle Fire 2 can beat the Nexus 7 with prettier features, a 3G/4G upgrade plan, and a lighter weight. Read the full article here.

Until the Kindle Fire 2 is released later this year (hopefully), we won’t know how it stacks up against the Nexus 7. However, if the Fire 2 is going to be announced later this month, we should get a better idea of just how competitive the sub-$200 tablet market could become.